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Sunday, October 31, 2010

Vortex is the 6th of 9 books in the Fate of the Jedi series by Lucas Books/Del Ray. The novel by Troy Denning is due out November 30th, so for those looking for Christmas gifts, it would be great way to reward that Star Wars fan you know. Denning's latest is clocking in @ 400 pages and is available for pre-order $16.20 at Amazon or if you're a Kindle owner only $6.29. If you own the Kindle there is no reason not to get the book at that price. Awesome deal. Anyways onto the official Blurb:

In a stunning turn of events, Luke Skywalker and his son, Ben, joined forces with members of the Sith armada sent to kill them -- and turned their combined might against the monstrous being Abeloth, whose power was causing young Jedi Knights to go seemingly insane. But with Abeloth gone and the Knights sane again, the Sith reverted to form, making a treacherous attempt on Luke's life.

Luke and Ben have no time for retaliation. A new and even more insidious threat is rising, one that endangers not only the Jedi but the entire Galactic Alliance. Unless the Skywalkers survive to sound the alarm -- and to pass along the secrets they have learned about Abeloth and the Sith -- the galaxy will suffer as it has never suffered before. But the reinforcements they need remain grounded on Coruscant, where the political battle of wills between the Jedi Council and Galactic Alliance Chief of State Natasi Daala has reached a boiling point.

Now Luke and Ben must go on the run, taking along the inscrutable -- and dangerous -- Sith apprentice Vestara Khai. With a host of Sith warriors in hot pursuit, the Skywalkers soon find themselves trapped on the moon Pydyr, caught between their former allies and a mob of angry Fallanassi. A new truce may be their only hope. But can a Sith ever be trusted?

With the Jedi's most famous father-and-son team outnumbered and outgunned, the countdown to galactic disaster has begun -- and time is running out!

There be Spoilersbelow…………Seriously stop reading now unless you have selective memory.......or are a Cerean with a two brains and will use one to read the spoiler and another to read the book….of course if you are a Cerean that's pretty awesome…….CHAPTER 5: Preview Review

Vortex presents us with two main plot lines, Luke/Ben vs. Sith vs. Fallanassi (White Current), and Jedi Order vs. Daala/GA/Mando Mercs. In Chapter 5 which is available in PDF form here, we get a scene dealing with the later.

CoS Daala has come to the Jedi Temple expecting the Jedi to finally cave into the Galactic Alliance's siege of the Temple, and turn over all the crazy Jedi to be locked up in Carbonite. Little does Daala know that she is playing Sabacc against Han Solo and he has a skifter in his pocket. What Han has is sane Jedi. From the previous novel Allies by Christie Golden, when Luke "killed" Abeloth, the psychosis that was affecting the Maw sheltered Jedi miraculously dissipated. Han is running a con on Daala, attempting to trick her to publicly committing to free the cured Jedi, lift the siege and hopefully get the Horn children released from GA custody.Chapter Excerpt:

Daala's glare turned suspicious. "I want the barvy ones, Captain

Solo: Sothais Saar, Turi Altamik, and all of the other unstable Jedi who

pose a danger to the citizens of this planet." She raised her chin and

spoke directly to the holocams hovering overhead. "And to this

galaxy."

"And then you'll lift the siege." Han phrased this not as a question,

but as a condition . . . and he made sure he was also speaking into a

holocam mike. "That's the agreement."

"I'll lift the siege after I'm satisfied that the Jedi are no longer sheltering

psychotic Jedi Knights," Daala said carefully. "And I am going to

search the Temple. Let's be very clear about that."

Impressions: Its jam packed with Star Wars awesomeness! Seriously in this brief 14 page excerpt we have 14 characters making an appearance and 3 others being mentioned. It is also jam packed with descriptive writing, for example we learn that Jedi Master Kyp Durron wears algoraspice cologne. Do I need to know that? No, but it's this kind of background detail that fleshes out characters and settings and makes for a very good Star Wars novel.

This is also a great characterization for Han Solo. It is almost like he slipped into his old Smuggler boots and ditched the "respectable" persona that has been crafted for him in much of the EU. I could just see the smirk on his face when Daala finally figured out he had her outmaneuvered and there was nothing she could do about it.

The chapter also leaves a nice cliff hanger as the fates of Jysella and Valin Horn is left unresolved, and the presentation of Corran and Mirax Horn in really rough emotional shape foreshadows interesting and dark directions that the story could take. Does Corran go to the Dark Side in frustration/anger to get his kids back?

If chapter 5 is any indication, Vortex has the potential to be the best book in the Fate of the Jedi Series. Will it live up to its potential? Find out with me on November 30th.

Monday, October 25, 2010

The preliminary cover art for Timothy Zahn's new novel 'Choices of One,' has been released on Starwars.com.

Pictured on the cover is a young Emperor's Hand; Mara Jade. In the background are the AWOL Stormtroopers, The Hand of Judgment, LaRone, Marcross, Grave, Quiller, and Brightwater.

'Choices of One' is the sequel to Timothy Zahn's novel Allegiance. It follows a young Mara Jade early in her career as an enforcer of Palpatine's New Order. It also follows the adventures of a squad of stormtroopers that desert after they see some of the Empire's atrocities and run afoul of the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB), the Empires secret police.

It will be interesting to see whether we get two different storylines, or whether its more of a unified story line with Mara and the Hand of Judgement together for most of the book.

In the first book, Zahn wrote some awesome scenes featuring Darth Vader and Mara Jade interacting.

What does the new book have in store? The future is always in motion.....

John Jackson Miller's latest installment in the e-book series LTotS has been released in PDF.

Hopefully a kindle version will be up on Amazon.com soon.

For those of you unfamiliar with the setting of the Lost Tribe of the Sith series. The crew of a Sith dreadnaught, the Omen, crash land on a technologically and naturally resource deprived world of Kesh. The story follows how the stranded Sith deal with each other and the natives of the planet.

This series of E-books ties in with the current major novel cycle by Lucasbooks/DelRey, Fate of the Jedi.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Apparently LucasFilm Ltd. is constructing. a a new digital studio in Singapore.

With the smash hit that is the Clone Wars animated series, the work on bringing Star Wars to 3D, and Lucas' other projects such as the Movie 'Red Tails,' there seems to be a lot in the Lucasfilm pipeline.

Though this makes me wonder whether this is one of the first steps in building an inferstructure to help develop the Live Action Television series that is in development.

Monday, October 4, 2010

A new stand-alone novel starring Dash Rendar (of Shadows of the Empire fame) is being co-written by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff. Random House/Del Ray and Lucasbooks is asking the fans to choose the title. The three titles up for vote are:

Star Wars: Shadow Games, Star Wars: Pursuit, Star Wars: Shadow Play

Blurb:

Stranded on Tatooine with a broken-down hyperdrive, Dash Rendar and crew—his Nautolan copilot, Eaden Vrill, and a droid named Leebo—have to find a way to raise credits. It comes in the lovely form of Javul Charn, a multi-talented human holostar being stalked by an over-zealous fan. She needs bodyguards to protect her during her tour along the Corellian Run; Dash needs credits. It’s a perfect match… until things begin to go wrong—seriously and dangerously wrong. By the time Dash realizes that the threat to Javul is not what it seems, he’s in up to his neck in a conspiracy that goes much deeper than anything he would have signed up for. Even with the help of his hated rival—Han Solo—will Dash be able to protect this spoiled entertainer, all the while being reminded that he couldn’t protect his own family?

The current trend from Lucasbooks is one word titles that have multiple meanings in regards to the story. See the Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi series. So it makes sense that Pursuit may be an in-house favorite.

In many ways the penultimate book in a large series is the most difficult to write. The author must begin the process of weaving th...

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